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  • makes a better mobile advertisement .

  • Too many working parts to this design. those wings at the pivot point are a disaster waiting to happen. Looks like the rich boys had a lot of extra cash to build the pet project. Cool design but waste of money.

  • @lewandlo ... It's not difficult to make this correct, so that it is very strong. I think there are actually less moving parts than on a standard airplane.

    Besides, at least two people from NASA and one person from Kennedy Space Center are involved in this, and I believe the owner of the craft is not interested in losing it. ;)

  • 15 people are a bunch of jealous russians :L

  • "Now we have a entry vehicle-we can come back from space" From 45000' its hardly space. Commercial jets fly almost as high.

  • I love this, I wanted to join the navy or airforce as a child

  • I am very happy to see the vidoe Exclusive footage of the first feather flight, Mojave from you, hopefully the others also are happy for You

  • Nice Video SS2 First Feather Flight, Mojave, May 2011_Filmed by The Clay Center Observatory That You Share , So Very Nice Thanks You

  • I Really Like The Video Exclusive footage of the first feather flight From Your

  • Your Video Exclusive footage of the first feather flight, Mojave, CA Is Very Useful Sharing

  • See You:)

  • Think of this as a sling shot going straight up and falling right back down again. Feather the frame as you start to fall back and it floats like a leaf and keeps itself stable. When it starts to hit atmospheric pressure slowly straighten it out and then glide it home. If they ever care to they can scale it up a bit bigger with a more powerful engine and then carry maybe twelve or fourteen passengers. NASA has already hit them up for four flights so they can fly micro gravity experiments.

  • You are damn cool guys! Please, post more videos from world's first commercial passanger spaceport!

  • in the spacecraft: "I'M IN THE SPACEEEE MOTHA FUCKKKKEEEERS! KAKAKA"

  • They did something similar with the first planes going oversees between Europe and America. We can do the same with this right? We're in the same phase we were before just on a different subject. This is going the right way.

  • Hey wait FOR me~!

  • um can i ask what so special about this its just like an airplane in high altittude?

  • @TheDeadeye1996 its made for comercial space flight

  • @TheDeadeye1996 An airplane at high altitude does not go into sub earth orbit and give weightlessness for over 5 minutes. just to name a couple.

  • 2:50 I feel se-sick just watching

  • Now when i look into the sky and i see a giant VIRGIN up there, it'll remind me that im still a virgin and ill cry.

  • agrarian revolution, scientific revolution, industrial revolution, now it's time for space revolution?

  • Excellent footage

  • SO Cool! My dream is they make enough money to further the process of going to Mars to start a colony. Probably won't be in my lifetime, but we must do it! I think going to Mars could be something to capture the world's imagination, but that's just me.

  • This is so sick nasty.

    Does the pilot have an ejection seat if something goes wrong?

  • Space shuttle is retired. That's "the point of this thing". Stunted.

  • He sounds like Eric from that 70's show.

  • does anyone else think this looks incredibly unstable and dangerous?? 

  • So I can fly into space, but I can't fly into Toronto. Hrm.

  • That's amazing, how can anyone dislike this? This is a big step for mankind.

  • WOW! great video. You can see shimmy before feather, rudder deflection on final and WHEW! what a sink rate to a spot on touch down! Commercial space travel within 18 months!!

  • Amazing. Such a stupid simple solution to re entry... NO WONDER NASA NEVER THOUGHT OF IT!!!

  • @sbd45acp Re-entry from a suborbital hop is far easier than from orbit, and it would be interesting to see if this works for orbit as well. It's a very different thing though.

  • @kablamo9999 So this cannot be scaled up to a higher orbit? Can the craft be slowed first and then feathered or no ( Atmospheric) drag? Does the shuttle need tiles because of altitude, or just because it is Big & Heavy and moving too fast?

  • @sbd45acp NASA goes to Low-Earth Orbit with the Space Shuttle. That is I think 27.000 miles per hour. This goes much slower, and not even close to LEO.

  • @Helge129 It's 17,500 mph, not 27.000, and even though this plane doesn't go into orbit, it is about 1/2500 the cost of the space shuttle. This means that it can potentially create a new space tourism industry which will make orbital space planes practical. Try searching for the "Skylon" spaceplane on google.

  • @Starpilot149 wait, 27k was in kilometers per hour...roughly anyway, sorry for that. It's still much more than what SS1 goes.

  • @Helge129 Or SS2 for that matter.

  • @Helge129 Sorry if I seemd sorta touchy, I'm just tired of the haters who seem convinced that this is just a over-hyped high altitude aircraft. Sure, it cant carry cargo into orbit, but it's the next step in making such things practical. :D

  • @sbd45acp ... AFAIK, NASA have scrapped their old shuttles (which I must say I liked very much), in favor for new lightweight "plastic-shuttles". See their Web-site for more information, if you're interested. As time goes by, we'll see new and better ways to travel/transport to/from space.

  • What they're doing now is what the government did back in the 50's with the X-51. Spaceship 5 will probably look like the current shuttle carried aloft by two 747's strapped together.

  • AMAZING

  • the elites will escape with this in 2012

  • Sir Richard Branson = national treasure

    a adrenaline junkie with a massive pile of cash with which to spend on his hobby.... hes one lucky sob

  • this combined with SPACEX will take over private space flight, making the moonbase more accessible for the super rich 27 million dollars and over-ares.

  • Катамаранолёт, "МРИЯ" всё же по внушительнее))

  • + 5

  • Now you just need to mount a SCRamjet on that thing and you have a low earth orbit (or close to it) vehicle. :)

  • The reason for feathered flight is because you avoid the high reentry speeds that a suborbital capsule or normal space plane would produce. You reenter at a slower velocity and you do not need the heat shielding those spacecraft need.

  • what's the purpose of the "feather flight"? Why do they have to bend the plane like that?

  • @Dihan22 it's to safely enter back into the atmosphere after spaceflight. The aircraft glides back to the ground to preserve energy.

  • Awesome! This is great! Read "The New Killer Diseases. " nanotech can do what pharma can't.

  • Dear Jesus ...

  • I could picture how they can use this technology to go to space without a shuttle. Awe so me piece of technology :D

  • They should have named the planes different. Maybe BALLS of FIRE...... Cause it's kind of gay having these virgen's fo out there.

  • what is feather flight ?

  • Amazing, put me down for a ticket, @moran68, haven't you heard, there's no money in "cures", there only money in "treatments", drugs companies figured that out with the polio vaccine!

  • I hope Aliens can't read English. wouldn't want to be caught with a ship that has the word 'virgin' pasted on the side of it. but it's still cool.

  • I need to transfer into galactic from virgin media! Wonder how much discount we will get on Tribe! :-D

  • "Leaf in the wind." -Wash

  • more money than sense,how about spending all that money on finding cures for life threatning conditions and diseases thats more of an achievement in my eyes.

  • @moran68

    As diseases get new strains and evolve, they become immune to certain treatments that might work today. It's a never ending cycle. Space, much more interesting.

  • @theiceman0101 What about life threatning conditions such as cystic fibrosis to name just one?

  • Comment removed

  • @moran68

    because we try that constantly and get nowhere. Should we stop all innovation on till we cure all diseases? That will never happen, there wil always be a new disease.

  • @BeaveHolio People will always die of something, we cannot live for ever. But we can always postpone that more and more times.

  • @ntomata0002

    for what there is more to life than extending it why should all of humanity be relegated to lengthening life and be forced to help people who refuse to help themselves, if we waited to help everyone we would still be living in mud huts.

  • that made my heart happy

  • I can't wait to see some humans go up under the Virgin Galactic brand =D

    Hope that will make some people interested about space again!

  • So, ummmm Nasa lots of fire lots money, But a Jet plane takes em to the brim of the sky and blast off in space comes back down ass up nose level. OK? for more cheaper than Nasa, Why Did we do it the hard way again for 30 years.

  • @firemanandxmarine SpaceShipTwo can't reach orbit.

  • So, ummmm Nasa lots of fire lots money, But a Jet plane takes em to the brim of the sky and blast off in space comes back down ass up nose level. OK? for more cheaper than Nasa, Why Did we do it the hard way again for 30 years.

  • great achievment im verry proud

  • Its gonna get up into space but not for a really long time. Jets can only go a fraction of what it takes to go in orbit... But nice try though :)

  • Nasa has generally failed lately. Branson and Rutan have brought back Nasa's 1960s spirit.

  • All these Lifting Body aircraft owe their success to the top quality test-flight operations flown by Steve Austin at Edwards in the 1970s.

  • This is not flying into space. It is just a very high aeroplane. Its max speed is 6000 km/h, space shuttle is 26,000km/h, It cannot stay in space, as soon as the engine kicks out it begins to fall back to earth instantly hence the 20 minute window, It can't stay up any more even if it wanted to. You are just skipping above the atmosphere with rocket power and then falling straight back.

    This is nothing special.$10k a minute and then it is over.

  • @gmanzeroalpha

    True, but you have to start somewhere.

  • Keep the Good work up.

    AND please keep posting videos.

    Really enjoy getting this video updates on the progress.

    WELDONE TO EVERYONE INVOLVED!

  • Whatvis a feather flight

  • Waste of money. NO point whatsoever. 

  • @4PIZON Its not like its your tax dollars. Lol...

    Virgin is doing this to establish a field of research.

  • @4PIZON You're an idiot.

  • @4PIZON Hi 4PIZON. If you feel this is a pointless waste of money, please Google the following: “CO2 Monitoring Satellite, Virgin Galactic Team Up." It'll lead you to a Wired article which details how Virgin Galactic has offered the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration free use of VG's vehicles to help improve our understanding of climate change, specifically through monitoring the distribution & exchange of carbon dioxide between the oceans, atmosphere, & biosphere. A good article.

  • Won't the heat affect the feather locking mechanism? The energy converted to heat on loss of Momentum would build up on bottom of craft.. Ok... But that joint seems to be weak link?

  • Good to see some progress, they've been working on this for a very long time.

  • Great job.

  • This is a marvel in aerospace Industry. Kudos to the design Team. This is radical design to slow the speed of aircraft on reentry without the need for special materials used in heat shield and space capsule. The folding design shows the brilliance of engineers when working in tight budgets and short time lines. this amazing. Good work guys keep it up we need to have a private space industry gov't has way too much control over space.

  • Want to see the orbit exit test...

  • Awwww how cute! Still, not even close to being impressive. You will earn the icing on the cake when I can get me from New York to London in no more than 4.5 hours! Anything else is just a lame attempt to circumvent the real world needs that are facing modern aviation.

  • @PilotVBall Your high-spirited remark is something like saying to John Glenn, after just finishing his 3 orbits around the earth: Awwww how cute, but I want to live on the moon! What did you accomplish till now? Did you tie your shoe laces all by yourself?

  • @PilotVBall Actually, flight times should be about 2 hours to anywhere on the planet that has spaceport landing facilities (2 mile long runway). Think New York to Sydney in 2 hours.

  • Best Virgin i have ever seen..

  • Awesome! Virgin's next step is going to be "Into space"! Can't wait! These companies really accelerate our society to the future!

  • why does the spaceship folds in two? is that to improve friction in order to slow it down?

  • @speedfreak0007 I think it's to avoid spinning and loose of control of the aircraft. We are talking about more than 55,000 ft. where the atmosfere is almost empty of air. Regular flights cruise at 33,000

  • @DaveForce so it's to improve the friction in order to stay in control of it? lol i'm studying fluidum mechanics right now, this is an educational break :)

  • @speedfreak0007 I think you got the point. It stabilizes the aircraft, and also drops it faster from an high altitude...

  • plz change the name of the vid....

  • what those this suppose to be a spaceship ??

  • 1:28 that looks soo cool!

  • Were the close-up in-air shots of the plane made by human cameramen or by a automatic system?

  • wow cool when whe gonna move to a other planet XD

  • spy plaine incoming!

  • @basolli

    I think it's a entry veichle from space, so original craft isn't lost.

  • Wow, what a brilliant solution!!!

  • this is cool and all but what is the point of this thing?

  • Comment removed

  • @Basolli Bringing the craft safely down.

  • @Basolli

    the elites will escape with this in 2012

  • @Basolli to show potential ticket buyers that this is safe trip.

  • @Basolli changing the way humans think of travel

  • @Basolli you should see this like a step to better and way cheaper intercontinental flights for the future. You should see the rich people that can afford this kind of trips as ''test'' tourists..

  • gaaay

  • a 3 double airplain ???

  • fuck u star wars

  • Nice!

  • nice title

  • So, when Spaceship Two re-enters the atmosphere, it won't generate the high temperatures that would require a heat shield. Simples. :)

  • THIS IS EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Looks like someone just strapped 3 planes together? *Sigh*

  • @bottledupinside1 *shakes head* no appreciation for the engineering and innovation that went into this plane...

  • @XReflection I guess not. :D

  • reminded me of Serenity when it dropped and then the rocket(or whatever that was) caught

  • "We've finally got confirmation that the basic design is solid." Isn't that what SpaceShipOne was for?

  • Wow! That's an awesome looking aircraft!

    @3Dimencia - "Express elevator to hell, going down!"

  • Someone enlighten me, why is this called a feather flight?

  • @Kanashto

    Because when the wings and tail section are rotated up 65º, it drops vertically through the atmosphere in a controlled manner and slower than a normal re-entry profile of other spacecraft such as the space shuttle, much like a shuttlecock, or badmitton birdie. A badmitton birdie falls in a controlled way, slower and more stable than just a plain ball.

  • @lambrettist2007 right, so it doesnt get ripped by the air :D thanks!

  • They better stain-proof the interior, because I guarantee that the inside's going to be covered in passenger puke.

  • wow! just like the aliens movie when they drop to the LV-426 colony from the mother ship, its kickass !

  • dont get it?

  • ok so from what i understand. this is supposed to be like some plane that can just go into space and then come back from space to earth with no worries? if im wrong can i get an explaination please lol

  • @RAP2106 You're correct.

    As previously, the space shuffles on re-entry would burn up to high temperatures, wasn't very stable. This is literally a way of going into space without the need of expert astronauts or any worries of exploding on the way back.

    Which has happened to people in the past.

  • Can someone reply and explain to me what it is?

  • Awesome. The SS2 surely is one beautiful spaceship :)

  • Yo Dog we heard you like jets so we put 2!!! jet on your jet

  • the fuckin future is here, good time to be alive

  • @lilraskaln1 And yet the flying cars are still in R&D. At least we do know they are there.

  • i knew that one day star fox would be real....

  • jet engines NO the name of the man is BURT RUTAN he has been doing the impossibe regularly for 30 or more years

  • This thing is a raw piece of beauty!

  • So this space program is sponsored by Virgin Records?

  • @yizuman No... Virgin Records OWN this space program...

  • @Gotamaluko Ok thanks for the info.

  • @yizuman It's owned and run by Virgin Galactic which is it's own company in its own right. There are over 400 Virgin Companies.

  • But,.... will it blend?

  • any chance of a free ticket?

    

  • a tad bit confused here, someone please explain

  • @ShortyDebs re-entry from space was hard. it required heat shields, computers and good piloting. this makes it easy.

  • @Holcomb227 Thanks! That really helped!

  • Ummm.. what will this change? I'm confused

  • @johnsongM16 the fact that anyone can go into space now... anyone with the right amount of money that is.

  • lol the rest of the plane is now burned i think

  • soooo did the majority of the body and those 4 engines just crash and burn then... whata waste.

  • @Vettz93 and Riesenpuller: 3:51, you see White Knight Two (the mothership) in the foreground. This is what the NASA shuttle was originally envisioned as: a fully reusable spacecraft where nothing gets burned up, both parts return to the runway and land.

  • simply awsome

  • If I understand it, Mubble, the feathering keeps the craft stable, and (I think) helps slow down the craft without so much need for ablative tiles as the Shuttle used. Think of it as a giant shuttlecock from badminton. :)

  • Silly Q, but what's the purpose of the feathering maneuver?

  • The feather part unless locked appears to be very flexible.

  • COOL GROUND OPERATIONS TOO!!!!!!!

  • yeh thats fancy and all.... but does it blend?????

  • The oscillating effect seen in full feather is that a result of the higher density atmosphere affecting the aircraft and will it not happen on re-entry?

  • Congrate's to the whole team and Burt for his vision out at Mojave Space Port.if you go out there the Dennys is a great place to view the runway approachs, i saw WK2 doing touch and go's, most awe inspiring.

  • @Hollywoodish Scaled has a great crew...and it's a real tribute to the team that they could rise up from the loss of their friends (the explosion)....and reach for higher grounds.

  • This R2 unit of yours is a bit beat up.  Want a new one?

  • Mojave is scary as hell at night. Meth addicts walk the streets like zombies

  • Beauty, eh?

    10 people are fucking luddites.

  • so that’s were all our cash for records went ,cool.